Kia ProCeed: The South Korean carmaker has finally come of age

The ProCeed is better looking and more sophisticated than its ancestors, and it even rivals the best from Italy, Germany and France, says Sean O'Grady

(KIA Motors UK)

ProCeed. This is an eccentric name for a car, a little like deciding to name your new model of refrigerator “cold”, or a new range of Cath Kidston mugs “hot beverage”.

Sort of tautological. Yes, that’s it. They should have called it the Kia Tautological.

There is in fact a long etymology of how the car came to have to labour under this odd label, but as it is of interest only to people who work for Kia and motoring journalists, I will leave it at that.

It does “proceed”, though, the Kia ProCeed, and attractively so.

Designed, engineered and built in Europe (Germany and Slovakia respectively), it shouldn’t downplay its Korean “background”, as the product of the Hyundai-Kia group, one of the biggest automotive forces in the world, and, as you’ll discover if you try one, able to make cars that compete perfectly well with other, more established, mainstream brands.

The ProCeed is available in a choice of three engines (two petrol, one diesel), two transmissions (six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic) and three upmarket trim lines.

The pick of the bunch is really the ProCeed GT version, mainly because it proceeds so well. As a hottish hatch, I think it cannot be bettered.

It isn’t a class leader in performance, you understand. Kia says that it “will allow all but the most ardent traffic-light-grand-prix fanatic to extract the maximum amount of pleasure on an open, winding road”.

The car has state-of-the-art connectivity via Apple and Android (KIA Motors UK)

So maybe not for the Duke of Edinburgh, then (who prefers to run into Kias rather than drive them).

But it feels very fast and urgent, with a nice Italianate engine tone (partly a sound effect pumped into the cabin in fact), and enough grip and acceleration on entertaining roads.

It has nice red stitching around the cabin, which really lifts it (there are one or two slabbly bits of plastic around).

Plus it stops well, and everything feels well controlled – no wheels scrabbling for grip or fuss if you push things along a little.

The ProCeed is perfect for family outings (KIA Motors UK)

The Kia ProCeed GT is that rare thing, rarer than it should be, and the kind of family transport that you’d want to take for long drive for the sake of it.

The more pedestrian versions are less entrancing, to be fair.

The GT variant does get the full specification. Thus, it has a system of lane assist that veers (wrong word probably) towards the autonomous – so it tends to steer itself on suitable roads (ie with clear markings), and will give a powerful tug on the wheel, if it thinks it’s heading in the wrong direction.

There’s also an adaptive cruise control, which means it maintains constant distance from the car in front, blind spot warnings of vehicles overtaking/undertaking; and the usual stability controls.

A heated sterring wheel keeps your hands warm in cold weather (KIA Motors UK)

You also get automatic lights (work well) and automatic rain-sensing wipers (work less well) with built-in defrosters.

For comfort, you’ll find heated seats front and rear; heated steering wheel (such a nice idea); fully adjustable electric front eats; leather and faux seating; sun roof; duel zone air conditioning; state-of-the-art connectivity via Apple and Android; and virtually everything else you’d expect for this side of a Bentley.

Even the more basic models are well-specced, for not much more than £20,000.

The new diesel unit is also completely up-to-date (Euro 6d-TEMP compliant, in the jargon), and is almost as smooth and refined as its petrol siblings. Importantly, it has impressive fuel economy and low CO2 emissions.

Car buyers are uncertain as to whether to choose a diesel, because the mixed messages coming for the government and the well-known industry scandals. However, if you’re likely to do high mileages in a large SUV, a diesel makes a great deal of sense.

The Proceed looks sleek and sophisticated (KIA Motors UK)

For something in the Proceed class, the case is less compelling, though the economy offered by the diesel is undeniable.

I have to say my test diesel model made a curious electronic noise when I took my foot off the accelerator, like when you press the wrong button on your smartphone. Hardly audible, but not the best way to proceed.

This all-new Kia ProCeed is bigger than the Ceed, their entry in the Focus/Golf/Astra sector; but smaller than the full-sized estate version of the Ceed, which is called “Sportswagon”.

Kia say it is a re-invention of the old idea of the “sporting brake”, though Mercedes-Benz got there first, with the compact GLA, and besides, sporting brake is just another name for an estate.

The spec

Kia ProCeed 1.4 GT-line

Price: £23,835 (GT at £28,685)
Engine capacity: 1.4 litre petrol 4-cyl, 6-sp manual
Power output (bhp @ rpm): 138@6,000
Top speed (mph): 130​
0-60mph (seconds): 8.8
Fuel economy (mpg): 45.6
CO2 emissions (g/km): 132

No matter. Kia, deliberately or not, are pioneering a new niche – the mainstream estate car/hatch hybrid, mid-way between the two. If anything, it reminds me of a previous generation of large-ish five-door cars that were popular before the five-door hatch became the great orthodoxy of medium size passenger car design (and now itself being overtaken by the tsunami of compact SUVs).

I am thinking of half-forgotten five-door models such as the Renault 16 and Austin Maxi, which many buyers chose for the space and versatility.

Indeed the original Kia Rio, which you could buy for a £1 deposit and which helped Kia find buyers in its early years in the UK, had a similarly intermediate shape, between estate and hatch (and a very good value buy at the time).

The Proceed is rather better looking and more sophisticated than such ancient ancestors, though.

It is a thoroughly German sort of look, no surprise since the group lead of design is the accomplished ex-Audi Peter Shreyer.

Like the Stinger grand tourer, launched in 2017. It shows that Kia has come of age. It has won the What Car? Car of the Year award with the advanced e-Niro electric vehicle, which enjoys a near 300 mile range, and another breakthrough model for the brand – putting them way ahead of the likes of Ford, VW and Peugeot in the race to build the first viable mass-market electric car.

It proves, too that, Kia is as competitive a badge as any of much older marques we’re more familiar with, developing its own “tiger nose” grille “face”, and gilding its image with ever more covetable “halo” cars that are starting to challenge the best from Italy (the Kias are better built), Germany (cheaper and may been enjoy better residuals) and France (niggling doubts).

More prosaically, you still get their transferrable seven-year/100-mile warranty. Things are proceeding well, then.